The present invention relates to a new and distinct cultivar of Hibiscus, botanically known as Hibiscus hybrid, commercially referred to as Hardy Hibiscus and hereinafter referred to by the name ‘Peppermint Schnapps’.
The new Hibiscus is a product of a planned breeding program conducted by the Inventor in Alva, Fla. The objective of the breeding program is to create new freely-branching Hardy Hibiscus cultivars with a compact plant habit and desirable flower color.
The new Hardy Hibiscus originated from a cross-pollination made by the Inventor in Alva, Fla. during the summer of 2000, of an unnamed sport of the Hibiscus hybrid cultivar Disco Belle Pink, not patented, as the female, or seed, parent with an unnamed selection of Hibiscus coccineus, not patented, as the male, or pollen, parent. The cultivar Peppermint Schnapps was discovered and selected by the Inventor as a flowering plant within the progeny of the stated cross-pollination in a controlled environment in Alva, Fla. on May 29, 2001.
Asexual reproduction of the new Hardy Hibiscus by vegetative terminal cuttings in a controlled environment in Alva., Fla. since June, 2001, has shown that the unique features of this new Hardy Hibiscus are stable and reproduced true to type in successive generations.